


see me rolling (showing someone else love)

by johannas



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Columbus Blue Jackets, M/M, Polyamory, boone/seth if you squint and i sure will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-21 21:30:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11366001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johannas/pseuds/johannas
Summary: Zach barely looks up from his Call of Duty when he says, “Were you raised by wolves? Maybe learn to knock,” and then, when he catches the bedding Josh is dumping on the floor: “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”





	see me rolling (showing someone else love)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [buckybarnes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckybarnes/gifts).



> heyyyyyyy marina so this fic is a little bit of a mess..... I promise to write you something better one day!!! anyways still hope you like this i sure like YOU!!!!!

Josh has made many mistakes in his time. He’ll admit that right now. Like when he was ten, and he thought it was a great idea to block a puck with his face, or when he was 19, and he chugged half a bottle of cherry vodka and threw up so much he thought he was dying for sure. Or just two weeks ago, when he attempted to do his own laundry. Not an overwhelming success. But he would do it all again - throw in an extra bottle of vodka while he’s at it - if it meant he would have never let himself be talked into being his hall’s goddamn RA.

“But it’ll be so good for your resume, Andy,” Boone had begged. “You’ll get your own room, and everybody already likes you, it’ll be the easiest job in the world, I promise.”

 _Lies_ , all of them. Sure, people like Josh, but after putting out one small fire, unclogging three sinks, seeing Kole cry on multiple pathetic, drunken occasions and scrubbing colours he didn’t even know puke could turn out of his sweater, the question is not so much whether people like him, but more whether _he likes people._

“I tried cooking the other day,” Kole says, staring at the ceiling. He’s lounging on Josh’s couch, pretending he’s not here to complain about everything in his life, _again_. “It burned.”

Josh stares at his statistics homework, trying to will it away or something. “Just order something like us normal people.”

“You call that normal, but it’s actually super pathetic.”

Josh sighs. “These assignments are kicking my ass, so if you want a therapy session it’ll have to wait until after I’m done.”

“Ouch,” Kole intones drily. “Therapy sessions are in your job description, in case you forgot.”

“ _I didn’t._ ”

“Do you think the exchange guys would be good cooks? Like, they make those meatballs at IKEA, right?”

IKEA is Swedish, Josh is pretty sure, and he thought Oliver and Markus were from Finland or whatever, but he says, “Yeah, please ask them. I’m hungry now.”

Kole bounces without closing the door behind him, but Josh takes some deep breaths. Stats.

He’s busy breaking his brain trying to understand what the first question even _means_ , when his ceiling starts dripping.

Drops of water splash on his floor, right next to where he’s innocently sitting at his desk. He looks out the window. It’s not even raining.

 _This is a_ historical _building_ , Boone’s haughtiest voice says in his head. _So pee in the bathrooms, please._ Josh squints at the little puddle of liquid on his floor, suddenly suspicious, and then dials Boone’s number.

Boone is Head RA, an ambition that got Josh roped into this fucking job in the first place, and the reason why Boone owes him an infinite amount of favours.

“The ceiling is leaky,” he says, once Boone answers his phone with a gruff hello. “There’s water on my floor.”

“Call maintenance?” Boone says, all quizzically, like Josh is stupid or something.

“I don’t have their number.”

“It’s - Ugh - fuck you, what kind of RA are you? Is stuff like that not on the website?”

“Jeez, dude,” Josh grins, spinning around on his chair. “Who pissed in your cereal?” Something wet and luke-warm lands on his neck, trickling down his collar, and he should definitely stop thinking about pee.

“I’ll call them for you, it’s fine,” Boone sighs, sounding like it’s everything but fine. Josh smiles sweetly, even though Boone can’t see him. It feels right.

“Thank you, baby,” he coos, and Boone replies with something very rude before hanging up on him.

He can’t focus on his homework like this, he reasons, and he fucks around on his laptop until some dude with a toolbelt comes in, frowns at the ceiling for a minute, and then says, “Motherfucking shit.”

Long story short, that’s how he ends up looking for a room. Or rather, that’s how he ends up barging into Seth and Zach’s room with his mattress under one arm, and his stats homework under the other.

Zach barely looks up from his Call of Duty when he says, “Were you raised by wolves? Maybe learn to knock,” and then, when he catches the bedding Josh is dumping on the floor: “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Hanging out,” Josh replies. “I get you don’t know what that looks like, since you don’t have friends.” Zach pulls a face at him and flips him a specific finger. “One friend,” Josh corrects magnanimously.

“Whatever,” Zach says, and he turns his game back on. He’s a good kid, Josh thinks. Doesn’t make a fuss.

Josh doesn’t ask if he can use the desk -- it has three photos of Seth’s hot mom on it, so Zach probably won’t care.

True to form, Zach doesn’t, and Josh starts sighing at his assignments again. The change of scenery has not helped.

“What are you doing?” Zach asks.

“ _Hanging out._ ”

“No, dumbass, the school stuff. I’ve never seen you do homework in your life.”

Josh pastes on his most shit-eating grin. “You watch me a lot, Zachary?”

“Ugh, gross,” Zach says, looking unbothered. “You looked like you were having trouble, that’s all.”

Josh sighs, shoulders slumping. “I don’t get stats, man. Like, math is already confusing, and then this is just worse, somehow.”

“I had an A for 101,” Zach says offhandedly. “Can’t be that hard.”

“ _I’m_ taking 101, and shut up,” Josh replies. Zach is like, some kind of baby genius. Josh can’t believe he’s getting shown up by a nineteen-year old, except he can, because it’s Zach. He never talks about it, but Josh clearly remembers he got a B in calc last semester and he was kind of irritable for days. Josh knows this because Harry spilled beer on him and he sighed really loudly. That’s about one step shy of furious in Zach-terms. “You freaking nerd,” he finishes his thought.

“Nerds are cool now,” Zach says, dropping his controller on the bed and slinking over to the desk. “Lemme see.” Josh feels the inane impulse to hide his completely blank assignment sheet, but Zach’s already there, hovering over his shoulder. “Okay,” he says. “Hand me your calculator, I’ll show you.”

Josh does, and Zach drags over the chair from his own desk and then proceeds to give Josh all the answers. It’s a pretty sweet deal, and even though he’s still not sure what the fuck a p-value is, at least he sort of knows how to get one. Also Zach keeps staring at his arms, which is understandable. Josh works hard for those.

About three hours into his new living situation, Josh has made himself comfortable eating some leftover pasta he found in the fridge and watching Zach play CoD. He’s extremely competitive about it, and it’s weirdly fascinating. Just when Zach gets shot in the chest and Josh crows in joy, Seth comes in.

“Andy,” he says by way of greeting. And then, “Is that a bed?”

“My room’s flooding,” Josh nods gravely. “Leakages everywhere and such. You guys have the biggest room, so.”

“Seriously?” Zach cuts in. “That’s what you’re doing here?”

“Is that my fettuccine?” Seth asks.

Josh looks at the tupperware box in his hands inquisitively. “Is it?”

Zach laughs when Seth curses under his breath, and Josh lets his grin broaden.

“Whatever,” Seth says, flicking the book Josh left lying on his desk. “I’m not participating in this sleepover. Bye.”

“So you’re gonna have a sleepover somewhere else?” Josh asks Seth’s retreating back, and Zach laughs again. Josh doesn’t mind it.

“Just so we’re clear,” Zach says, “I never agreed to this either.” He’s smiling, so Josh thinks it’s probably fine.

He knocks his shoulder into Zach’s. “You love having me over, though.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” Zach smiles, setting up another game. “Wanna play?”

“Sure.”

He get absolutely embarrassed, but Zach’s eyes crinkle when he laughs at him.

*

Dylan shows up for the first time since Josh’s new living situation two days in, which is long considering how much time he and Zach spend together. Dylan lives on the other side of campus, but somehow, he’s at every one of their dorm parties. He also works at the coffee corner closest to the sociology building, and on very early mornings he sometimes lets Josh have coffee for free. Josh likes him a lot.

“Heard you were sleeping over,” Dylan greets from his place on the couch. He’s horizontal, toes digging into Zach’s thighs, and grinning at Josh upside down.

“Yup,” Josh declares happily. He’s gotten an armful of clothes from his own room. The man fixing his ceiling has taken what seems like a very destructive approach to the problem, but he also looks like he knows what he’s doing, so Josh hadn’t dared to say anything. Instead he’s here, looking for a place to put his stonewashed 80 dollar jeans. “I won’t hog your best friend, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he jokes to Dylan, wondering whether clearing one of Seth’s drawers would be too rude.

“Well, I sleep over when Seth isn’t here, usually,” Dylan says, and when Josh throws them a look that says _well duh_ , Zach is grinning.

“He’s not here a lot,” he clarifies.

“I brought my own bed,” Josh shrugs. “It’s like I’m not even here.” He looks at his mattress speculatively, and decides to just dump his clothes on the floor right next to it.

“You’re terrorizing this space,” Zach tells him.

Josh smiles at him sweetly. “Don’t speak to your elders like that, Zachary.”

Dylan kicks Zach in the thigh and nods sagely.

*

It turns out that Dylan Larkin is _easy._ Apparently after he’s seen Josh interact with him and Zach in private just the once, that means him and Josh are like, best buddies now. Josh doesn’t mind. Dylan greets him in the hallway, toque smushing his curls, and he gives him free coffee all the time now, grinning at Josh crookedly while handing it over. One time, he even makes a shushing gesture and orders Josh in a conspiratorial whisper not to tell anyone.

Josh thinks he smiles just a little bit too wide to be friendly, but he doesn’t really mind at all.

*

Day six of Josh’s personal Watergate starts with Seth returning to the room with aplomb. Zach’s bunking with Dylan, so he’s not there for Seth to wake up violently.

“What the fuck, man,” Josh groans from his pile of blankets. “It’s like, early.”

“It’s nine o’clock, you baby.”

Josh peeks at him from under the covers. Seth looks way too rested for 9 AM. “Where have you even been all this time?”

“Boone’s,” Seth replies. “He had some choice words for you that I won’t repeat, by the way.”

“Whatever.”

Seth clanks around with some pots and pans. Josh hopes to God he’s not actually cooking this early. “How’s your stay been?” Seth asks.

Josh coughs before saying, “Fine.” He already sounds a little less gravelly. “Zach’s at Dyl’s. He’s over here an awful lot, huh?”

“Zach and Dylan are dating,” Seth tells him. “So jot that down.”

Josh’s brain goes _ummm_ for about thirty seconds, feeling more awake by the second, until he realizes Seth’s eyebrows are about at his hairline waiting for Josh to respond, and says, “Oh.”

“Is that a problem?”

“No! Nope. Not at all-- They. Yeah. That’s amazing. Wow.” Words are definitely leaving Josh’s mouth right now. “I just didn’t-- Think they were. That’s all.”

“Okay,” Seth says slowly. “Because if you have a problem, we need to have a very serious conversation.”

“We don’t! We don’t. Promise.”

Seth sighs at him. “Okay, good.” He’s a pretty good guy, Josh thinks.

“Hey, Seth?”

“Yeah?”

“How would you feel about being a Resident Assistant? It’s really the best time of your life.”

“Nope.”

“And it’ll look _so_ good on your résumé.”

“Absolutely not.”

*

Josh looks at Zach and Dylan and he can’t believe he never saw it.

The easy affection they have, the way Dylan smiles at Zach and how Zach touches the small of Dylan’s back. They’re sitting on the couch in front of Josh, like they have sat for a week, but this time Josh _sees_.

“So,” he says. “Seth told me you guys are dating.”

Zach doesn’t look up from his video game, which was to be expected, and Dylan looks at Zach sideways.

“You didn’t know?”

“Well,” Josh says, and thinks, _fuck it,_ “I kind of thought you were both flirting with _me_.”

Zach gives him a weird, unreadable look, and Dylan just looks vaguely uncomfortable. It’s all par for the course, really.

“Um,” Dylan starts and stops.

“We were,” Zach says.

“Oh,” Josh says, very eloquently. He looks at the TV for a bit. “Cool.”

“Yeah?” Zach asks.

“Yeah.”

“Nice,” Dylan says.

And Josh is Josh, so he says, “Cool, wanna make out?”

Dylan and Zach both laugh at him, pretty hard as well, and Josh thinks he likes it. He could get used to them, laughing about his stupid jokes. “Sure,” Zach says. He pauses his video game for it.

*

Josh's ceiling is finally fixed a week later. He moves his mattress and his clothes back there. Dylan twirls around in Josh's chair and Zach plops down on Josh's reinstated bed.

"This is pretty big," he remarks, patting the bed suggestively. 

Josh flops down on top of him. "Well," he says. "I do owe you a favor. You were a pretty good host."


End file.
